Two of the British master's best symphonies.

George Lloyd writes: "When a composer has written eight symphony he may find that the horizon has been blacked out by the overwhelming image of Beethoven and his one and only Ninth. There are other very good No. 5s and No. 3s, for instance, but how can one possibly have the temerity of trying to write another Ninth Symphony? I solved my problem by treating it lightheartedly. I wrote my Ninth Symphony in December 1969 and on the full score I added the following notes: If I had been a serious composer in the late nineteenth century, this symphony would have been at least an hour and a half long, and it would have concerned itself with life, death and resurrection. As I was born somewhat later than that, I will simply tell you that there are three movements, the first one is about a young girl, she dances and is a little sentimental; the second is about an old woman who reminisces - grief-stricken; and the third is the merry-go-round that just keeps on going round and round and round. The Second Symphony was written in 1933 and revised in 1982. The first complete performance was given under my direction by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in Januar6y 1986; this recording was made a few days later."

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Review:

"The current considerable interest in the music of George Lloyd - reflected by the gramophone, aided by the BBC rather than the concert hall - again emphasizes the wish of ordinary music lovers to discover again communicative twentieth-century music, after repeatedly experiencing, without pleasure, some of the musical barbed wire which has been fashionable for too long. George Lloyd's musical language is traditional, but none the worse for that...His inner conflicts are without the underlying bitterness of Shostakovich, but there are conflicts in his music to be resolved, and in his relatively extrovert Second and Ninth Symphonies his invention is spirited and imaginative as the splendid recorded performances by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra readily demonstrate." (Gramophone)